Mitch McConnell's Republican Senate has all but ended judicial confirmations for the last 18 months of President Obama's final term in office, with a few exceptions, like when home-state politics demand a Republican running for re-election allow a nominee through. This with more than two dozen "judicial emergencies" declared in states where vacancies have drug on and on. Republicans say there's little reason to shift gears with a lame-duck president in office and hopes running high about their prospects of winning the White House. "It'll be a slow, steady pace," said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas). Is it payback for Democrats invoking the so-called "nuclear option" two years ago to get their judges through?